What a man! What rigid virtue--if virtue that should be called, to which everything seems suspicious and culpable. If this be a knowledge of mankind, who would not wish to remain in ignorance? Why does Emilia stay so long?----He dislikes the father--consequently, if he admire the daughter, he must mean to bring disgrace upon him! Scene VI. Emilia _and_ Claudia Galotti. EMILIA (_rushing in, much alarmed_.) Heaven be praised! I am now in safety. Or has he even followed me hither? (_Throwing back her veil and espying her mother_). Has he, my mother, has he?--No, thank Heaven. CLAUDIA. What has happened to you, my daughter? EMILIA. Nothing--nothing. CLAUDIA. And yet you look wildly round, and tremble in every limb! EMILIA. What have I had to hear?--And where have I been forced to hear it? CLAUDIA. I thought you were at church. EMILIA. I was. But what are churches and altars to the vicious?--Oh, my mother! (_Throws herself into_ Claudia's _arms_.) CLAUDIA. Speak, my daughter, and remove my fears. What evil can have happened to you in so holy a place? EMILIA. Never should my devotion have been more fervent and sincere than on this day. Never was it less what it ought to have been. CLAUDIA. Emilia we are all human. The faculty of praying fervently is not always in our power; but, in the eye of Heaven, the wish to pray is accepted as prayer. EMILIA. And our wish to sin as sin. CLAUDIA. That my Emilia never wished. EMILIA. No, my mother. The grace of Heaven has preserved me from falling so low. But, alas! that the vice of others should render us accomplices in vice against our will! CLAUDIA. Compose yourself.--Collect your thoughts as well as you can. Tell me at once what has happened to you. EMILIA.